Les Pitt
Many people are not aware that the block of land now being developed for The Block TV was once the property of W. E. Stanbridge, a wealthy local squatter and philanthropist who contributed greatly to the early development of Dyalesford.
William Stanbridge bought the land that became Wombat Park in the 1850s and at that time he called it Wombat. The gold diggings in the area became the Wombat goldfield, later Spring Creek goldfield then Jim Crow, and later again Hepburn goldfields. In early correspondence from Stanbridge he gave his address as “Wombat – Jim Crow Road”. He had bought the land from Robert Clowes of Tylden who had an extensive acreage at that place and who maintained, according to undocumented family history, that they knew that Wombat was sitting on a rich goldfield but they were farmers not goldminers.
Stanbridge was also a farmer but he was not afraid of miners working on his land as long as they were prepared to pay royalties for every ounce of gold they found there. They found a huge amount mixed in with the gravel in the buried creeks. The spoil heaps from the Astley and Cosmopolitan mines can still be seen on the Glenlyon road close to the turnoff from Castlemaine.
Stanbridge lived a comparatively basic life in a small weatherboard house now located in Fraser Street where it was moved in the 1920s. His main enjoyment in life apart from the many mistresses he allegedly had (two are on record) was his garden, which has now developed into a beautiful forest which the people of Daylesford can view once a year. He hosted the townspeople once a year on Boxing Day when he provided food and entertainment for all comers. There was even a turnstile in the fence behind where the ‘Blockers’ are working now. That paddock itself was never developed, probably because of the mining work going on underneath the ground, but it was the site of Daylesford’s largest ever open-air parties, bigger than Chill Out but maybe not as noisy.
We know he had impeccable taste, shown by his purchases of the “top of the line” carriages he bought from London, one of them costing £600, an astounding amount at the time. It would be like buying a Rolls Royce in today’s terms.
His taste in women was also immaculate. First he married Florence Colles, the strikingly beautiful daughter of the Sheriff of Castlemaine. He loved her deeply and to save her from the scrutiny she would have received in what would have been a public scrimmage to see the bride at the Church of England he spirited her and the witnesses away to Melbourne where they were wed in a small church in Hawthorn on the very outskirts of the city.
He was very direct in giving his occupation as “Squatter”, a word that later took on different meanings and became in some ways a term of contempt. The vicar who conducted the wedding was slightly deaf. When Stanbridge stated his place of birth for the wedding certificate the vicar wrote down “At Sea” not an uncommon birthplace in those times. But Stanbridge actually said “Apsley” in Warwickshire where he actually was born.
Stanbridge was devastated when Florence died shortly after she delivered a daughter also to be named Florence. Stanbridge in his will made a large donation to the University of Melbourne for a perpetual scholarship named the Florence Stanbridge scholarship. He also left the bulk of his estate to his daughter as well as large bequests to his illegitimate son and his illegitimate daughter.
He supported his parents in their old age and also remitted a large sum every year to his sister in England.
Les Pitt is a local historian and a member of the Daylesford and district Historical Society. He is the author of Mud, Blood and Gold: The Early History of Daylesford.
